I got this board and the gigabyte lan shows as working with no issues in windows but wont find an IP...I added a NIC and it works fine...is the board defective or is there a bios setting or something???

just wondered because the NIC is fine but if there is a defect maybe best to just RMA it back to the Egg for a new one

Have you tried un-installing it through the device manager, then re-installing it again? It sounds stupid, but many times it will work. Could also be a device conflict with other cards. Any other add-on cards installed?